1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a library unit sharing system wherein a library unit (assembled-type unit) containing multiple recording media is shared by multiple computers for use.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, a library unit containing multiple recording media has been provided. In the unit, a specified recording medium is loaded into an I/O unit in response to an access request from a computer to perform data read/write operations. Such a library unit is accessed from multiple computers for use under the control of a conventional system. However, the conventional system has been designed on the precondition that the same recording medium on the library unit is not accessed by multiple computers at a time and in fact, it does not deal with requests for access made by multiple computers simultaneously.
Thus, whenever multiple computers make requests for use of the same recording medium at a time, the loading process requested by one of the computers results in an error because of the absence of that recording medium. Consequently, the loading process fails and the program abnormally terminates.